animation tests

[Frogman]

Hi there.. I would say that you have a good start to this walk but there are a few things that need to be worked out. Feel free to take what you will from the critique.

The mech's cockpit/cab is way too bouncy.. try keeping it stabalized facing forward, with a light rocking/jarring to it, as if it has countermeasures to bouncing.

The geometry of the claws is crashing through the legs at the leg pickup.. also, there is some popping right before the left claw picks up to step.

The mech looks like a Madcat / At-St style thing, so take a look at how they walk and branch out from there possibly.. not much character on the previously mentioned walks but they look like machinery moving. It depends on what you're going for.

Hmm..let me take another viewing..

Hmm.. I see what your doing with the rocking motion of the cab.. you're rotating it back to far at the top of the step...

I think your geometry might limit the step style of your walk (if you don't want the crashing). Maybe consider shorter , faster steps. Ohh.. and the claws look like they're expanding to quickly mid walk. Have them open as an anticipation to the step and when contact is made, have them expand a bit further before slightly retracting. It should give the feeling of more weight to the walk.

I'm not sure how it would look, but you could add a bit of a slight shake after the steps to get the feel of more weight..

What feeling are you going for with the walk? Is it energetic? Mechanical? Strong? Lithe? Cocky? It's something to consider after you get the mechanical issues of the walk out of the way..

[Hyphen]

thanks for the in depth critique! probably the best one i've gotten on cgtalk thusfar.

The mech's cockpit/cab is way too bouncy.. try keeping it stabalized facing forward, with a light rocking/jarring to it, as if it has countermeasures to bouncing.

i saw that too, it was originally way bouncier, but i decided to shrink the bounce down a bit. i guess it is still too "rocky". i'll fix that.

Hmm.. I see what your doing with the rocking motion of the cab.. you're rotating it back to far at the top of the step...

*nod* i'll adjust that.

I think your geometry might limit the step style of your walk (if you don't want the crashing). Maybe consider shorter , faster steps. Ohh.. and the claws look like they're expanding to quickly mid walk. Have them open as an anticipation to the step and when contact is made, have them expand a bit further before slightly retracting. It should give the feeling of more weight to the walk.

I'm not sure how it would look, but you could add a bit of a slight shake after the steps to get the feel of more weight..

the geometry is a bit limiting. this is the first time working with this rig. i'm still trying to get a feel for its limitations. i wanted to aim for a heavy, menacing sort of machine. i also noticed the bad timing on the claws. i'll try to add the anticipation correctly.

again, thanks for the critique! i wish i could get more of these responses :D

[Hyphen]

i made the above stated adjustments...i think? here's a fixed version

maya playblast avi (http://william.is-a-ninja.com/videos/ScalableMechMA.avi)

as usual, put the cycle video to loop.

[SirRon]

Hey, looks better than your first one. One overall thing I notice is that one side moves great, but the other doesn't match it.

1. Right leg as it moves back is good, but the left leg bobs up and down. I'd check the Y translation on the left leg in the graph editor and make sure it's a flat line for the duration of the foot on the ground.

2. Left foot lands, cockpit goes down... that's good. But the timing of the right foot landing and the cockpit going down seems much closer than the left side.

3. This could be an issue or not... the knees are pointing a too inward.

4. It doesn't seem heavy to me yet. My suggestion would be to have it drop a bit more sudden like this (http://www.geocities.com/sirron81/mechwalk.mov). It might be somewhat exaggerated for your taste but you get the idea.

It's looking good, keep working at it.

[Frogman]

Wow.. this is a vast improvement from the previous walk cycle. I"m really impressed with the progress. He makes some good observations in his critique.. I think his shown example is a bit to extreme for the walk though.. To get the weight your looking for, try just adding a slight pause between steps. Nothing jarring, but a noticeable pause would work.. think about the power lifter from the Alien series, or watch a backhoe move. The claws feel like they're opening really fast now.. a big improvement from the previous walk, but you can try delaying them a bit more.. just adjust the weighting on the curve.

Hmm.. anything else. The trouble with heavy machinery moving fast is that they can look light unless they're making effecting the environment with their weight.. A camera shake could fix this. OOoh.. a good reference might be Jurassic Park's T-Rex.

There is a weird triple jerk in the cockpit during the passing of the mech's left leg and the joint really snaps forward at the connection point on the cockpit. You can make that work though. I can't tell from the camera angle, but is there any side to side motion in the cab? It should still move like the hips of a person would (or maybe the body of an ostrich?).

Great work! I'm sure you've moved on to other projects, but take what you will from the critique as always and leave the rest :).

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